[snip]
With regards to T-Mobile's coverage maps, they are highly optimistic,
especially in Northern New York where many places listed as covered are
not covered.

There's a hefty upgrade in process at T-Mobile now that
they've gotten the 600 mhz bandwidth.

I know, for example, that an area I frequent - which didn't
have any TM coverage, is in the process of getting towrs
with 600 mhz cell sites. There's even a brand new TM
franchise store that'll be opening in that area in
about a month...

The good news is that their footprint will be expanding
(which, of course, will take time...). The bad news is
that older phones, and many current ones... won't work
on those frequencies.

T-Mobile is the fastest 4G LTE network in US (according to 6billion OpenSignal reports)

On 1/27/2018 3:40 PM, JF Mezei wrote:
With regards to T-Mobile's coverage maps, they are highly optimistic,
especially in Northern New York where many places listed as covered are
not covered.

In urban areas, T-Mobile has been acceptable. And for those people that
never leave urban areas, T-Mobile is a good choice, and cheaper than
service from the top tier carriers.

But non-urban coverage is costly. You provide it not because there are
enough rural customers to cover the cost of towers, but because your
urban customers want coverage while traveling.

Perhaps, eventually, with their new lower-frequency spectrum, T-Mobile
will spend the money to compete with the top tier carriers in terms of
coverage. But it may make more sense to cede the customers that care
about ubiquitous coverage to AT&T and Verizon, and not spend the money
on expanding coverage.